Part of that IE is just an application built on top of the mshtml.dll rendering engine. This rendering engine is an embedded control for other applications and is also used by vendors other than Microsoft (such as Symantec).

Some vendors (such as Valve) have realized that's a fucking terrible idea and switched over to embedding other browsers (Chrome Embedded Framework in the case of Steam).

So, when you say "remove IE" do you mean just remove the executable or do you remove the DLL, breaking any applications that rely on it?

Incidentally, the embedded control is also why you should keep the version of IE up to date on Windows even if you don't use IE.

To add to this, Microsoft shipped a faulty copy of mfc42.dll with Visual C++ 6. It removed a bunch of functions.

Now, keep in mind that mfc42.dll was used by any MFC applications compiled by Visual C++ 4.2-6.x... including Netscape, Microsoft Publisher, and a number of other programs.

Oh, did I mention that MFC was the recommended way of writing Windows programs back then?

Incidentally, Microsoft started including the VC++ version number in its DLL names again after this thanks to that screwup... which they had done before (vc++ 4.1 had mfc41.dll, etc...)

That would be wrong.

AMD and Intel had a Microcode cross-licensing agreement from way back in the late 1970s.

Even if they hadn't, word on the street is that one of the requirements IBM had for using Intel processors in its personal computers was that there had to be a second source for them. Meaning that Intel had to license the designs to a second company. What company was that? AMD.

It isn't clear that they have a good way of detecting clones other than trying to rewrite the USB IDs (or other EEPROM data) as the clones immediately overwrite it while real devices don't.

Since this is a mid-term election year and election day is less than a month away, you'd think that would apply right now.

Especially since Michigan has its gubernatorial election on mid-term years.

Or in other areas. I know in the Lansing area, we still have at least 2 operational GM plants, both built since 2000. Wikipedia suggests there are two more located somewhere in the area. That's not even counting suppliers or other areas... or even manufacturers other than GM.

If you're including Tesla under "who loses out" then you also need to include General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler under "who benefits from the bill modification."

Also known as the "big 3 automakers" in the US (even though Toyota has passed Chrysler in sales).

In this case, Michigan's economy is still somewhat heavily reliant on a small set of automobile manufacturers. None of which are Tesla.

First four is a security hole as a bunch of people from your bank will share them.

Except that they appear as Progra~1 and Docume~1 to programs that don't support long filenames.

Very likely.

I thought I saw an article about why the version number was 6.1 in Raymond Chen's Old New Thing blog, but my Google-fu is apparently failing to locate it.

Not just driver compatibility.

Windows 7 fixed a bunch of Vista compatibility issues with programs built for XP simply by having the version be set to 6.1.

Turns out that companies doing braindead Windows version detection of

if (majorVersion >= 5 && minorVersion >= 1)

had it fail spectacularly for version 6.0.

I had to search every area of my Google+ profile's accounts section until I finally ran across the button to do so. I don't think their help pages even tell you the correct location for it, and now that my profile is deleted, I can't go back and tell where it was (it just prompts me to create a Google+ Profile when I do).

I don't know about if you've never had a Google+ profile, but I deleted mine earlier today and can still comment on my own videos... haven't tried replying to someone else, though.

...and you should check a dictionary instead of an encyclopedia.